There are about 200 companies making traction motors for electric vehicles. Concurrently, there are also about 200 companies that make the lithium-ion batteries that increasingly power them. However, whereas three types of lithium-ion battery chemistry and construction are taking almost all of the business, with traction motors the situation is more complex because the diversity of needs calls for many very different types of motor - from brushlessoutrunner motors for quadcopters to claw pole torque assist reversing alternators (TARA) for the new 48V mild hybrids that will be in volume production from 2017.

Those mild hybrids will now qualify as electric vehicles because they will have pure electric silent take-off like regular “strong” hybrids. While it is true that an increasing number of traction motors for regular electric vehicles also work in reverse to generate electricity from braking and even when coasting, they are very different from TARAs which typically appear as belt-drive starter generators (BSG) and integrated starter generators (ISG) in 48V mild hybrids appearing in volume from 2017.

Mainstream electric vehicle reversing traction motors generate very infrequently whereas the opposite is true for a TARA. Regular hybrids and pure electric vehicles used hundreds of volts in most cases though there are a few that work at 48V including industrial and leisure runabouts and one supercar announced in 2016. The new IDTechEx Research report, “Mild Hybrid 48V Vehicles 2016-2031”, for instance, looks at the synergies, opportunities and market potential in 48V systems for mild hybrids and, much less important, pure electric vehicles.

Source: IDTechEx photograph

It is important to look at the whole picture to see what is coming in traction motors for EVs. For instance, those chasing efficiency and power to weight ratio may watch energy independent electric vehicles (EIV) because they have the most extreme requirements of all in the lightweighting and efficiency arena. Newcastle University in the UK is designing such motors for the Boeing drones that will stay up for five years at a time.

And Nuon Solar Team, the winner of the Bridgestone trans-Australia 3000 kilometer solar race, claims a remarkable 96% efficiency for the motors they design and use. Few regular electric cars even reach 90%. Another solar team in the Netherlands has made a four seat EIV that has so many solar panels it not only performs its tasks but donates energy to the grid as well and claims 97% efficiency for its electric motor.

In a similar vein, Zero Motorcycles, a leader in electric motorcycles, designed its own motor. It increased efficiency and generated the heat on the outside with the result that a huge gain was made by abandoning liquid cooling.

Learn more about traction motors at the IDTechEx Show! in Berlin, April 27-28.

Monday, Jul 13, 2015

ARTICLE: Given its rising popularity and expansion in the marketplace, we’ve decided to focus our first piece on one of today’s hottest markets: wearables. In this post, you’ll find some key trends, where the market’s heading, a few examples of popular wearables and additional information about the unexplored opportunities in this market.

Monday, Jul 27, 2015

ARTICLE: 3D printing of metals is facilitating the transition to additive manufacturing from rapid prototyping. Printing in plastics has its place in prototyping and education, but metal printing has allowed the technology to be adopted for part production in the aerospace, orthopedic, dental and jewelry industries and is now being developed for the oil and gas, printed electronics, and general engineering industries.

Friday, Jul 31, 2015

ARTICLE: Conventional vehicles with an internal combustion engine as the sole traction power have become more electric over the years – as customers demand more and more electrical and electronic devices.

Thursday, Aug 6, 2015

ARTICLE: In 2015 the global wearable technology market will be $24.2 billion, based on surveys conducted by IDTechEx Research. However, the majority of this – 74% - is for already mature wearables – the humble electronic wristwatch, earphones, blood glucose test strips and the like.

Friday, Aug 14, 2015

ARTICLE: It’s no secret that wearable technology has garnered a lot of attention the past few years. The driving factor has been the adaption of technology that has been widely used in other consumer electronics areas into a form factor that can be worn on the body.

Wednesday, Aug 26, 2015

ARTICLE: Thin, flexible batteries have been available for more than 15 years, but have only had limited commercial success. This is not surprising, since they have been more expensive, offer lower capacity and have a shorter shelf life than regular button cell or larger batteries.

Wednesday, Sep 2, 2015

ARTICLE: The medical and healthcare sector, primarily characterized as “digital health,” represents the single largest opportunity for the wearable technology industry. Patients want it, some physicians are embracing it, insurance companies are starting to fund some of it, regulators are approving some of it and companies ― big and small ― all want in.

Friday, Sep 4, 2015

ARTICLE: The development of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in China has long been heavily supported by the Chinese government and can be readily seen in large projects, such as national identification cards, passports and subway ticket applications.

Wednesday, Sep 9, 2015

ARTICLE: A large opportunity lies in the development of devices in a flexible form factor that can operate without deterioration in performance, allowing them to be more robust, lightweight and versatile in their use ― such as in wearable technology. This is specifically related to flexible OLED displays, and other devices using organic materials (such as OPV), where the organic materials deteriorate very quickly with exposure to oxygen and water.

Friday, Oct 2, 2015

ARTICLE: The 3D printing industry will grow from $2.5 billion in 2015 to $20 billion in 2025. This growth is due to both improvements in existing printing technologies and the development of completely new technologies.

Thursday, Oct 8, 2015

ARTICLE: Equipment makers are turning to Asia. There is an impending transition from equipment for development and prototyping purposes to buying equipment for higher volume manufacture. Here, the equipment focus is different: It is not about making state- of-the-art transistors using printing, but doing simpler things, reliably, that can be used in commercial products today.

Wednesday, Oct 28, 2015

ARTICLE: Consider the most glamorous things that recently burst upon the scene, such as the MIT robot dog that jumps over obstacles, the Dyson robot vacuum cleaner that is as effective as a traditional model or the latest smart watch with its myriad features. Behind the dazzling exterior, they are made by 100-year-old design rules: buy components, connect them together and drop them in a box.

Monday, Feb 8, 2016

ARTICLE: The market for smart glasses and functional contact lenses will be worth over $260 billion by 2026. And it will be diverse – encompassing augmented and virtual reality headsets to remarkable embedded functionalities in lenses.

Thursday, Mar 3, 2016

Friday, Mar 25, 2016

ARTICLE: Emerging haptics has been a major research priority in the automotive sector (for car interiors), in VR, AR and robotics (for adding touch, force and acceleration to the sensation), as well as in other consumer sectors (for making user interfaces more intelligent).

Monday, Mar 28, 2016

ARTICLE: Installing photovoltaics in roads? This seems a strange idea at first. It sounds expensive and unlikely to work unless the surface is cleaned, free of snow and ice and in direct sunlight – all too infrequent in most places. Indeed, roads are constantly dug up by utilities, repairmen and others.

Tuesday, Mar 29, 2016

ARTICLE: While the majority of wearable technology products sold today still fit with the components-in-a-box design, 2015 was a record year for investment in smart clothing and e-textile products. To reach the masses, wearable technology must be useful, practical and fashionable, and seamless integration within textiles and clothing is seen as a key part of this.

Wednesday, Mar 30, 2016

Thursday, Mar 31, 2016

ARTICLE: Formula One is significant in two ways. It is a major business in its own right -- approaching $14 billion -- and it pioneers vital new technologies in a car or bus near you from the disk brake to the flywheel kinetic energy recovery system and the supercapacitor hybrid powertrain.

Friday, Apr 1, 2016

ARTICLE: Printed and flexible electronics are beginning to proliferate, with a variety of components and devices coming to market. Several end-user verticals are expected to benefit from the host of advantages these technologies offer and the automotive sector is no exception.

Monday, Apr 4, 2016

ARTICLE: There are about 200 companies making traction motors for electric vehicles. Concurrently, there are also about 200 companies that make the lithium-ion batteries that increasingly power them. However, whereas three types of lithium-ion battery chemistry and construction are taking almost all of the business, with traction motors the situation is more complex because the diversity of needs calls for many very different types of motor - from brushless outrunner motors for quadcopters to claw pole torque assist reversing alternators (TARA) for the new 48V mild hybrids that will be in volume production from 2017.

Wednesday, Apr 6, 2016

ARTICLE: Developments of energy harvesting technologies in 2015 were pretty uneven, with some showcasing growth in interest as well as applications and others failing to meet expectations but despite limited growth expected in 2016 , by 2025 the market for transducers and power conditioning is expected to reach over $12 billion.

Friday, Apr 8, 2016

ARTICLE: Everything, literally everything, is changing in the conductive inks business. The traditional markets are experiencing upheaval in terms of requirements and product leadership, while various emerging markets are opening up new frontiers.

Monday, Apr 11, 2016

ARTICLE: $1.2 billion of Electrically Conductive Adhesives (ECAs) are already selling each year, and they are becoming increasingly common to replace solders in a variety of functions, applications and industries.

Sunday, Jun 5, 2016

BLOG POST: There are significant investment opportunities now in various battery markets. According to an IDTechEx Research report, Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2016-2026: Technologies, Markets, Players , the total market for thin, flexible and printed batteries will reach $471 million by 2026.

Wednesday, Jun 15, 2016

BLOG POST: Very large lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery banks were largely unknown 10 years ago. Now, it is tough to keep up with the variety of uses for them. On ships, where there were no such batteries, we are starting to see 1-5 MWh banks. Autonomous underwater vehicles, mining trucks and buses can sport ones of up to 350 kWh but it is in stationary applications that really big facilities have arrived. Here there is a multiplier effect with Li-ion gaining market share in growth markets.

Thursday, Jun 23, 2016

BLOG POST: The Transparent Conductive Industry (TCF) industry has recently experienced sluggish growth. The industry has transitioned from being supply-limited to being commoditized and demand-limited with supply currently outstripping demand. This is a commonplace characteristic of supply industry into consumer electronic devices: there is often a scramble for supplies as demand rapidly takes off but the industry soon over-invests, the capacity overshoots demand, and competition renders the component a commodity.

Monday, Jul 4, 2016

BLOG POST: HP first launched their Multijet Fusion concept in October 2014 and have been teasing us with snippets of additional information ever since. HP recently started taking orders for products, the first of which will be shipped by the end of 2016. The first target is model shops and service bureaus, and the co-developers included Materialise, Shapeways and Protolabs. Multijet Fusion is being positioned as a truly industrial technology, and is poised to take a share of the $12 trillion global manufacturing market.

Monday, Aug 1, 2016

BLOG POST: While Apple’s profits have hit record levels recently, the writing has been on the wall as the competition from Asia in particular begins to produce much improved products at lower prices. With Apple’s quarterly profits and revenues down, the change in strategy at their primary market matures is becoming less subtle. They need to find the next iPhone, meaning the next big thing. They won’t mind whether it’s a car, a medical device, a wearable, a service, or one of those Jobsian products that we don’t know that we want yet. They will get there, but expect a bumpy ride along the way.

Wednesday, Sep 7, 2016

BLOG POST: The commercial success of energy harvesting has been almost entirely based on variants of the electric motor and the silicon solar cell. That spans from the bicycle dynamo and wind turbine to the solar roof and solar wristwatch. Nonetheless, off-grid creation of electricity where it is needed and with no emissions should be a market of more than a few billions of dollars – it could be one hundred times that.

Thursday, Sep 29, 2016

BLOG POST: The future of the energy, mobility, electronics, and communications industry will be strongly shaped by the development of one key enabling technology, that is, energy storage. At the historical tipping point of structural change in these sectors there has never been a better time for a dedicated forum on energy storage as key enabling technology.

Wednesday, Oct 5, 2016

BLOG POST: Agricultural robotics can upend several commonly-held notions. Amongst them is the idea that big is better. In practice this has translated into ever larger and more powerful agricultural machinery. This makes sense because a big machine amplifies the capabilities of the skilled driver, dramatically boosting its productivity. This notion may however be about to experience a fundamental change. The reason is that the driver can now finally be taken totally out of the equation.

Friday, Nov 4, 2016

BLOG POST: IDTechEx has a newly researched report, "Internet of Things 2017-2027". Benchmarking what went before, it finds that the most prolific electronic device is the anti-theft tag known as Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS). This is because it is disposable and big retailers and libraries in some countries feel that it deters thieves. Over 10 billion are produced yearly, mostly sold at around one cent apiece. There are three standards impeding sales because tags have to be replaced; and produce, for instance, is often defaced in that process when goods are rerouted to a different retailer.

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